Nearly all Republican Missouri State Legislators signed a joint
letter to Speaker Newt Gingrich opposing H.R. 1617, known as the
CAREERS bill, which would expand and make permanent the
School-to-Work Act passed by Congress in 1994. The text of the
letter follows:

Dear Speaker Gingrich and Missouri Republican Delegation:

We, the undersigned Republican members of the Missouri House of
Representatives, are very concerned about the broad scope of H.R.
1617 and the resulting effect on the nationžs educational system,
in particular the system in our state. The bill centralizes
unprecedented powers at the federal level. It requires that "The
nationžs labor market information system shall be planned,
administered, overseen, and evaluated by a cooperative governance
structure involving the Federal Government and the States."

The education issue is the premier issue in our state right now as
our Democrat Governor in 1993 passed a sweeping bill which gave
unprecedented, broad powers to unaccountable bureaucrats. These
powers included the ability to write "standards" and create
assessment testing which would be the basis of all our childrenžs
education. Legislators have NO oversight or binding authority over
the development or approval of these items.

To further our concerns and problems, H.R. 1617 supersedes state
laws and further takes us, the local elected officials of the
people of this state, out of the process of education.
Specifically, H.R. 1617 on page 74 of CAREERS (the "final" version)
amends out the state legislature, replacing it with "the
Governor of a state shall . . ." Let us please explain the
practical effect of this change on us and the people we serve: in
Missouri, the Democrat Governor instructed his bureaucrats to make
application for Goals 2000 monies by defining a whole system of
laws and procedures that we would put in place in order to get the
money. Most legislators are only now, for the first time, even
seeing what he is binding us and our children to.

In brief, our objections to Goals 2000, and to H.R. 1617 as it
incorporates word-for-word many sections of Goals 2000, include the
removal of local control from education and the centralization of
power to the federal government including the need for approval
from the Departments of Labor and Education for a statežs proposal
for grant money. The terms used in the acts are of concern as they
refer to items such as a "skill certificate" which children would
be required to earn and which employers would be encouraged to
require as a condition of employment. Finally, a myriad of new
agencies, departments, and programs are created under both acts,
and it appears a large centralized, nationwide data collection
system will be put in place. Our Governoržs state grant request
alludes to the idea that Missouri will change child age labor laws
in order to get kids working early in vocational trades and that we
will establish transportation to get students to these employment
places.

Because many members of the Missouri House have been keeping a
close eye on this issue, the Republican Missouri House members were
able to ferret out $10 million in our statežs current proposed
budget which we discovered is being stashed away to implement the
statežs Goals 2000 policy, per the authority given to the Governor
under H.R. 1617. This money was hidden in $5 million increments in
two different budgets and was labeled "vocational education." Only
under intense questioning were we able to learn that these monies
were being earmarked to implement the Governoržs proposal, that we
havenžt approved, per the legislation you wrote.

This practice -- the practice of avoiding the Legislature -- is
unacceptable and flies in the face of the contention of local
control of education. In addition, in a time when the
administration of our schools is the defining isse between the
parties in this state, we would respectfully request that you
reconsider H.R. 1617. As a Minority party just six seats from
gaining majority, we need the latitude to effect change when we
control the House. We also need some legislative powers so that
we, as a minority, can keep a check on the Democrat Governor of
this state. Please revise the federal education law to repeal
Goals 2000.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and your consideration
of this request.